


The Black Queen

by goboy007



Category: Civilization (Video Games)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 12:14:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29118072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goboy007/pseuds/goboy007
Summary: Catherine de Medici, queen of France, executes a devious plot to conquer a city-state through becoming their Suzerain.





	The Black Queen

**Author's Note:**

> A Civ VI short story. Based on a game I had in the past.

Situated between the Cimmerian Desert to the north and tundra to the south, Paris stood as the capital gem of the French Empire. Fed by the ample amounts of wheat found within its northern plains, the capital had grown to be one of the largest cities on the continent of Cimmeria and stood as the seat of power of French culture and influence. Famous writers were born in the Theater Square, and military geniuses were minted at the Encampment to the city's northeastern border.

It was here that Catherine de Medici, the queen of France, resided and ruled over her people. Often she would be found sitting on the balcony of her palace, sipping imported wine from the English north, overlooking the small river that flowed into the Mediterranean Sea. She was nicknamed "The Black Queen" for her ruthlessness in eliminating the barbarian nations that were a nuisance for so long to the north and south, now turned into French cities of their own. This sedentary position is usually where her servants reasoned she came up with her various diplomatic plots that earned her her moniker. Whether it be bribing the Eastern power Scythia to becoming allies to then settle a city near them, or befriending England only to flood the English island with missionaries of Protestantism before they had a chance to develop their own religious beliefs, Catherine had a reputation for knowing how to handle situations that made her nation all the more secure and powerful.

This day was no different. As she sipped her wine she had her trademark smirk on her face. She had thought of her next big move and was eager to implement it. Aside from Scythia, France was the only major power on Cimmeria and their cultural dominance permeated every city on the continent. There was one outlier however. To the southeast of Lyon, another French city, lie a city-state filled with lush farms and a lake that held such beauty it was known far and wide: Antananarivo. This city, while on friendly terms with the empire, had developed a strong culture of its own and Catherine envied its resources and cultural potential.

Catherine was adamant at France being the cultural superpower of the world and saw Antananarivo as a promising asset to her eventual goal at cultural domination. There was one problem that kept her from immediately absorbing the city into the empire: the city-state sported a healthy military that was the envy of other city-states around the world. Archers, warriors and spearmen protected the city around the clock and made sure that any barbarians that dared try to breach the borders of the city were met with hell. There had been various victory songs about the soldiers of Antananarivo beating back various invasion attempts by the southern tribes of the tundra.

It was the queen's mission to figure out a way to break that pride and penetrate the defenses of the city-state. But while France's military power was known for its efficiency and strength, there was no easy way to defeat the men of Antananarivo head on. For months, Catherine racked her brain to figure out the best way to crack through the defenses and conquer Antananarivo for herself. And now, with her plan firmly set in her mind and ready to put into action, she could hardly wait for a special strategy meeting that she called for all of her high ranking officials.

A servant knocked on the windowed door to her balcony. "Your Highness," the servant bowed. "General Lyon has arrived. Ambassador Louis and the other advisors have already been seated in the meeting hall."

"Very good _ma chérie_ , I shall be there momentarily." Catherine nodded and took one last sip of her wine before she rose from her seat and began to walk inside her chamber. As she began to put on her crown, she took one look in her chamber mirror. Staring back at her was a woman whose smile signaled a readiness for her mind to once again triumph over the powers of the world and bring glory to her nation.

* * *

The meeting hall was busy with idle chat. The centerpiece of the room was a long wooden table lined with various chairs for the people of honor to sit. Several notable people were already in their places for the meeting. Benoit Lyon, a general of the army, lightly played with his army knife while he waited. The 20 year veteran was still young for a general but the 40 year old man had seen his fair share of military action dealing with the various barbarian tribes that had populated Cimmeria. Across from him sat Solange Louis, one of the newly appointed diplomatic envoys awaiting her next assignment. Her demeanor was prim and proper but her face showed a hint of intimidation at the rough-looking general across from her.

"Queen Catherine de Medici has arrived!" A voice suddenly shouted as the people around the table stopped what they were doing and immediately shot up from their seats and bowed to the doorway. Catherine walked in in her usual confident stride, her black dress swaying gently as she moved. She sat at the head seat at the table and motioned for everyone to sit.

" _Bonjour_ everyone. I hope you all have had safe travels as you made your way to Paris. General Lyon, how are the new recruits doing?"

"Coming along, my queen." General Lyon said. "The new warrior unit out of Paris should be ready within a month's time, and the new archers in Lyon have completed their garrison in the city. With the other warrior unit finishing training soon in Toulouse, I can safely say any nation mental enough to attack will be met with France's best."

"Wonderful." Catherine smiled. "A strong military is the key to peace"

"If I may Your Highness," The general said. "I was surprised that you suddenly requested this uptick in military training. I'm always grateful for new recruits, but has there been a new threat that you have detected?"

"Oh, not a threat General, an opportunity. That is why I called this meeting today." Catherine motioned to one of her servants. The servant produced a map of the known scale of Cimmeria, including the full layout of the empire, a Scythian city to the very far northeast, and one city-state to the east emphasized with a red mark around it.

"As you know, we have been trying to craft a plan to conquer Antananarivo for a while now. This military buildup I am prioritizing is preparing for the inevitable invasion that we will have to do. Of course, I'm not blind to the risk. Our spies send reports nearly every month that their military either grows or gains more experience with the southern barbarians. At this rate if we were to attack we would incur heavy losses even if we ultimately conquer it. However, I have devised a plan that will make this conquest easy and painless."

Catherine motioned again to her servant. The servant set a parchment in front of Solange. As she picked it up and read through it, her eyes widened.

"My queen, if I may," Solange said in a soft voice. "This order here says that we should...befriend Antananarivo?"

"Precisely. I call this Operation Angel. We will use our influence to render Antananarivo helpless against our advance. This is a multi-step operation. Your job, Ambassador Louis, will be to be the catalyst for us to establish suzerainty over them. We already have envoys there who have contributed to their well-being; with you bringing the proposal of protection against all threats, they will be under our beck and call."

"But Your Highness," General Lyon said. "Wouldn't this undermine our plans to attack?"

"Patience, General. The next step involves you and your high ranking officials. Once we've acquired suzerainty, you and your team will go and levy their military. We have the funds necessary to do so. Our spies have learned that while Antananarivo's strength is unmatched as far as city-states go, their military is split between the north and south of their territory. You will take advantage of this."

Catherine pointed to several places on the map as her servant placed another parchment in front of the general. "With their military under our control, you will lead the military on two missions. The north army will be told that we are planning an attack on Scythia and must march north to help us. The southern army will be told that they are going to destroy the southern barbarian tribe once and for all."

As she explained her plan she couldn't help but start to show a satisfied smirk. She was enjoying thinking about her plan coming to fruition after all this time preparing. "Of course, these are only fronts. The mission, General, is to draw them as far away from the city as possible. Send them to the eastern plains, the southern tundra, or the Mediterranean Sea for all I care; the goal is to drive them as far away as possible. In the meantime, our army, with our new recruits, will move in on the city slowly. Then, once we're ready…"

She paused to let the room figure out her meaning. The general's eyes widened as he understood the mission. "The city will be an open door. We're deceiving them right out of their territory." He turned to his queen and saw her smiling ear to ear. He had to admit, while we loved serving the queen, sometimes her various schemes made her a frightening individual, especially when she smiles at her ingenious plans.

"Exactly. With no one to defend the city, we should make short work of the garrisons there and Antananarivo will finally be ours."

"A genius plan, Your Highness!" Solange exclaimed as the rest of the room agreed and started to chatter with enthusiasm.

Catherine sat back and watched her aids as they praised her and began to talk about the plan. As she was the supreme queen, she had never experienced anyone question or rebel against her wishes. She had always made sure that the French were well stocked with luxuries from around the world and even as the population grew, she had never experienced the slightest hint of dissatisfaction among her people. It was a queer feeling to her as she had heard of issues in other countries where people, unhappy with their leader's rule, caused production shortages and sometimes outright rebellion.

The queen raised her hand to quiet the room. "This plan will go into effect immediately. Ambassador Louis, you will make your way to Antananarivo and provide them the suzerain proposal. General Lyon I want you to find two of your best officials and have them start making their way to the city to provide the orders to their military, as well as prepare our men for battle. When we levy their armies we will have limited time before they are no longer under our direct control; they are not stupid enough to loan their military out indefinitely. We must be in place before that happens. Is everyone clear?"

The room erupted with "Yes, Your Highness!" as Catherine rose from her seat. She rose with a smug smile and focused eyes that fixated on Antananarvio's place on the map that was in front of her.

"Good. Dismissed!"

* * *

After the strategy meeting, Catherine and her people went into action. General Lyon and Solange set off for Antananarivo by horse carriage. While a road between Paris and Antananarivo drastically cut down on travel time, the snaky landmass of Cimmeria this travel still made the trek last about a week in total. Along the way, the general stopped in the city where his family name originated and started to give orders to the men in Lyon to prepare for movement when they received orders. He also chose two officers to follow him to the city.

They were met with open arms in Antananarivo as Solange presented the leadership with the suzerain proposal. The king of the city, Kayin Mwangi, took the proposal with great glee and announced throughout his court that Antananarivo would become strong allies of the French Empire and swore loyalty to them as they helped protect their city. The city rejoiced at the news and France officially became their suzerain.

Days later, after the king held a mass feast across the city to commemorate the new relationship, General Lyon went to work generating the levy plan that would split the Antananarivian forces. The northern army of mostly basic warriors would snake around Lake Retba, the large lake that was one of the natural defenses for the city, and head to Issyk, a Scythian city that was to the far east under the pretense of helping to launch a surprise invasion of Scythia at a future date.

The southern army, consisting of more experienced units like spearmen and several archers, would be led in the direction of the southern barbarian tribe in the cold and harsh tundra and snow that the tribe called home. The officer put in charge of leading the southern force was ordered to seek out fighting with the tribe at any opportunity he had, no matter if there was a guarantee there would be heavy losses. This way, the tribe would inadvertently aid France in their efforts to whittle down the Antananarivian army. Of course, the officer would justify this by calling it a necessary sacrifice to rid the threat of the tribe once and for all; a goal that Antananarivo had not realized even with their strength.

The goal was for both armies to be at least 2 weeks away from the city before the queen would give the declaration of war and move her forces in. Once the plan was set, General Lyon met with King Mwangi and requested the levy of the military with the goals of finishing off the barbarian threat and aiding in a surprise attack against Scythia. The king agreed, eager to please their new ally, and soon the armies of Antananarivo were off on their respective missions.

* * *

Catherine lounged in her usual spot on her balcony one day enjoying the breeze coming from the river. Her plan had been going exactly how she pictured it; all but one veteran warrior unit of the northern city-state army were now in the far north plains where they were closer to Scythian territory, while the southern army was busy fighting the southern tribe, incurring some losses of units along the way. Meanwhile, the French army, fresh and ready for battle, were slowly making their way to the borders of Antananarivo. King Mwangi had only agreed to a short, 2 month levy, and even with that limited time, all of the pawns in Catherine's plan had fallen into place. She figured she could milk the levy for a while longer and drive their army out even further before she declared war. A sly smirk appeared on her face again as she thought of the city that will soon be hers.

A hard knock on her windowed door snapped her out of her fantasies as she turned to see her servant had escorted a messenger panting heavily and clutching a piece of parchment. The parchment had the national insignia around it, signaling that it was a message from someone high in the French court.

"Your Highness," the servant said. "A messenger for you."

The messenger knelt down in the presence of the queen before standing up again and extending the parchment with one hand while trying to catch his breath with the other.

"Your Highness, an urgent message from General Lyon at the borders of Antananarivo."

Catherine looked at the messenger with a bit of concern before she took the note from him and read its contents. As she read her demeanor changed from a calm one to an increasingly menacing one. Her face strained as she read the letter from the general and with each line she grew angrier to the point that the messenger began to step back from the queen.

"Take me to the border of Antananarivo. Now." Catherine said in a stern tone. Without hesitation the messenger and servant disappeared from the doorway to make carriage preparations. Catherine turned back to the sight of the river but with a new expression on her face: one of anger and determination.

* * *

"When did you first spot them?" Catherine asked as she sat in a war tent with General Lyon. She had made the trip to the camp outside of Antananarivo in record time it seemed. General Lyon had expected his messenger to return with orders from the queen after his letter reached her, but instead the messenger came back with the queen herself, and a queen that was noticeably peeved.

"Around a month ago. The scouting units saw them roaming around Antananarivo's farms." The general answered. He stood at the side of a small table pointing at a map that was plastered on it. "I'm not sure how they were able to train them so fast. The city's terrain is good for production, but to gain three more units within this timeframe is something."

"They must've fast-tracked them with gold." Catherine pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes. The general's letter detailed his scouts' observations that there were newly trained Antananarivian soldiers (two warriors and an archer garrisoned within the city) not bound by the levy patrolling within the city-state's borders. The letter also detailed the general's conversation with King Mwangi, where the king explained that with the military gone to fight other efforts, he wanted to make sure that the city was secure, even with the empire backing him. General Lyon detected an air of deception in the king's tone, as he continued on about making sure no 'outside forces' would have success in conquering the city-state.

This was one calculation that Catherine did not anticipate. Had the king noticed the troops moving closer to his borders and started getting suspicious? Did the king catch on to her plan, and if so when? The easy victory that the queen imagined was now in jeopardy. The Antananarivians were known to fight hard and she would have liked to avoid any unnecessary blockers to her plan.

"We have to strike now," She continued on. "We can't afford Mwangi to train any more units."

"What about the veteran warriors? That stubborn unit was slated for the northern army but took a while to get out of the city limits; they can still make it here to cause great damage to our archers if we don't take the city quickly."

"I'll order the city of Lyon to train some more soldiers so they can try to intercept them. We can't wait any longer. Most of their previous army is far away and if we can defect this small nuisance of a force, we can take the city." She stood up and looked the general directly in the eye. "General Lyon: give the order to your men. It's time."

General Lyon looked back at her with determined eyes. Even with this unexpected turn of events, he knew he had to be ready to lead his men to battle. "Yes, Your Highness."

* * *

Unbeknownst to the men marching through farmland and pastures, the Battle of Antananarivo would go down in history for several reasons. For one, the opening skirmish involved a small retreat of the larger French forces from the borders of the city. The people of Cimmeria were used to hearing war stories of courageous men charging ahead in the face of danger, and only read retreats as admissions of defeat. For the French to open with one was very puzzling, especially to King Mwangi, who after receiving the declaration of war by France and recalling his levied troops to fight for the homeland, he expected to be on defense from day one.

But when some of the French troops retreated to an unknown area, the king went on the offensive to show off the famed might of the city-state. Unfortunately for the ministate, this was a part of the French plan as General Lyon used this 'retreat' to draw the Antananarivian forces out of their borders into open terrain, where French archers showered them with arrows. Within days, combined with French warriors strategically charging in again to finish off the remaining defenses, the entire force Antananarivo had built to defend its borders after the levy were destroyed, save the lone archer garrison in the city.

The troops now free from the French levy tried their best to rush back to the city's aid when they heard the news of the invasion. The southern army bounded through the snow and tundra hills to make it back to their homestead, but the terrain made it near impossible to make it in time for a thorough defense. The northern army was even further away and, try as they might, the soldiers were hard pressed to see their home again with its own flag standing.

Once the French broke the roaming forces of the Antananarivians, the battle was short-lived. The veteran warrior unit that was still in range to take part in the defense arrived too late, as French archers and a warrior unit were in place to swiftly deal with the veterans as they approached the French position. With the veterans dead and the city surrounded on nearly all sides, there was little that the archer garrison in the city could do except take pot shots at the warriors who were knocking at the city's gates daily. The city-state of Antananarivo, once a storied, cultured independent nation with a history of successfully defending its borders, was conquered and annexed by the French in just two and a half weeks.

* * *

Catherine gazed out of her carriage window at the countryside filled with wheat farms. She admired this countryside and always thought this was the reason why the city grew to be as prominent as it did. The western portion of the city was filled with farms and pastures, which gave the populace plenty to eat. The sights of Paris were something to behold when one was lounging by the river, but the countryside of Antananarivo was calming in its own right.

The queen exited the carriage as it came to a stop at the entrance to the city and observed her surroundings. Most of the fires of the city had been extinguished and clean up was nearly done as some people walked the streets trying to get to their next destination. Even though the people had just witnessed the horrors of war, there was surprisingly little resistance to French rule once the previous government fell. It would seem that Solange and the rest of the envoys that were responsible for Antananarivo did their jobs well and established connections deep within the city-state before war was declared.

As she walked along the road to the former palace of the city, the people at the street stalls and passerbys looked in awe at the queen. They had heard stories of the Black Queen from traders passing through the city but when the people saw her (or what they could of her when her royal guard was not blocking the view), they marveled at the regalness of her appearance. Her black dress made her look both elegant and powerful, and she walked with the confidence of a conqueror. As she stopped in front of the palace building and looked up at its impressive architecture, she couldn't help but let her trademark smirk appear on her lips as she revelled in her plan's success. Another victory for the Black Queen.

END


End file.
